Factors Influencing Nutrition Knowledge Growth Among Fourth-Grade Students: FoodMASTER Intermediate

Abstract

To assess the impact of child and classroom level factors on nutrition knowledge growth among forth-grade students exposed to the FoodMASTER Intermediate (FMI) curriculum. Data were collected from n=263 forth-grade students in Ohio and North Carolina who participated in a quasi-experimental trial of the FMI curriculum, which integrates nutrition knowledge into mathematics and science curriculum. Students were nested in 18 classrooms, evenly split between intervention and control. All lessons were delivered by trained classroom teachers, and follow-up evaluations were completed at least one month prior to the end of the academic year. Data, including intervention or control status, student knowledge, demographics, and contextual factors at the student (gender, free/reduced lunch status) and classroom (years of teacher experience, teacher previous nutrition training) levels, were collected prior to program intervention and at follow-up. Multilevel modeling was used to assess the impact of student and classroom level variables on nutrition knowledge gain, and the model-building process resulted in six models to assess the research question. Classroom intervention status was significantly associated with gain in nutrition knowledge in all models where it was included (p < 0.05), further supporting program efficacy. Student nutrition knowledge prior to the intervention was also significantly positively associated with nutrition knowledge growth (p < 0.05). Student gender, free/reduced lunch status, teacher years of experience, and previous teacher nutrition training remained insignificant. These results indicate that more efforts should be made to introduce nutrition education in earlier grades to maximize growth in nutrition knowledge in upper elementary programs.